Developing an increasing role for the VCSE in SussexHealth&Care Partnership

The workshop will be facilitated by Debbie Sorkin, National Director of Systems Leadership at the Leadership Centre.

We have a limited number of spaces available (capped at 50 attendees) to allow for meaningful discussion to take place

Background

In its 2019 Strategic Delivery Plan, The Sussex Health and Care Partnership stated:

“We will take a holistic approach to supporting our population’s health and wellbeing, of mind and body, in an integrated way. This will require new ways of working…considering the wider determinants of people’s health and care needs….to develop an increasing role for the wider community and voluntary sector in addressing those needs.”

More recently, this has been amplified in the Partnership’s 20/25 Strategic Plan, “Our Vision for a Healthier Future”:

“… we now need to have a continuous collective conversation around how we can make our vision a reality. We know that this level of continuous change and improvement cannot be done in isolation; it will need the engagement, input and commitment from our communities, our staff, our health and care organisations, our partners, and our stakeholders. Over the months ahead we will be engaging and having discussions across the system to help bring our vision to life. It is only by working together that ‘Sussex 2025: Our vision for a healthier future’ will become a reality.”

It’s therefore timely for us in the VCSE in Sussex to think about how we want to co-create this increasing role, and in a proactive way, rather than waiting to be asked what we think once the conversation gets going. We’re in a great position to know what works, and how best to support people to improve their health and wellbeing in the places where they live, and this directly contributes to some of the key goals in Sussex 2025:

• For people to live for longer in good health

• To reduce health inequalities, particularly in relation to healthy life expectancy

• For people’s experience of using services to be better.

To that end, we’re looking to bring together a group of colleagues from across the sector to think about this in more detail.

Because we know that we’re working in complex situations, and that we’ll therefore need to try out new ways of working, we’re going to start from the basis of defining a ‘good enough for now’ common purpose. Having a common purpose isn’t just a matter of signing up on the dotted line. It’s about really understanding not just what we want to do, but also why we want to do it, and what it might mean for all of us, including where the pressure points might be.

From there, we can use our common purpose to go forward, keep together and use as a continuous reference point, working towards the outcome of supporting people’s health and wellbeing, and addressing health inequalities with the emerging ICS in Sussex. We’ll use the time, following on from our common purpose, to start thinking about how we can begin to make this a reality. This might include new ways of working that we want to try out, or identifying key stakeholders whom we want to influence. We’ll then finish by thinking about practical actions and next steps.

We look forward to seeing you on the day.